Learn patience.
Patience is a desirable virtue. Fast food drive-thru windows and ten minute oil changes have spoiled me. Supermarkets that are open 24/7 have given me anything imaginable (googly eyes included!) in a quarter hour's time frame. Made and shipped from across the globe, the value of the smallest things I carry with me is now worth much more than it was in my pre-collegiate years. I am now very aware of the economics behind the manufacturing and supplying of goods and the human resources that are included.
While staying at Solheimar in Iceland, I spent a few hours in the knitting room of the eco-village, where mentally disabled people learned to craft mittens, hats, and scarves. I was given the task of twisting ends for a table decoration. At first, finding the coordination for assembling the tedious strands and knots brought frustration. The clock above the door reminded me I was obligated to practice the movements for a few more hours.
Sitting beside another volunteer, I was brought back to a kindergarten classroom where I untied knots as punishment for some sort of committed naughty-ism. As a six year-old, I was placed in a corner where I would have to work out kinks in a shoelace.
In the room in Solheimar that was filled with fabric scraps and large looms, my grumbles from inside were a result of a lifetime of haste and options. My anxious, unamused manner was somewhat dispelled when I looked at Karen, a pregnant Icelandic woman who spoke in the softest voice I had ever heard. She ran the workshop and gained happiness from shear simplicity, from breathing that pure air, from working with her hands.
I did not notice a single time that Karen looked at the clock or if she glanced at it at all.
If I learn her patience, I would hope to transpose her inspiration so the world does not desire to conquer itself with rolling eyes and voiced complaints from time spent waiting in line for anything at all.
I have been around someone with a similar patience; Mr. Sparkles has it in him. He understands time and its essence in our being, and how it should not be taken for granted. While he waits with duties looming in a sense unlike Karen's, he finds entertainment in the pacing around him. He remains at peace.
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